When a supervisor enters into a sexual relationship with a subordinate, chances are things won’t go well for the company. That’s one reason you should put in place strict limits on dating for supervisors and subordinates. You can prohibit such relationships altogether, or insist that anyone contemplating dating a subordinate must notify HR first so he or she can be removed from the supervisory role before the relationship starts. Otherwise, you risk a sexual-harassment lawsuit, especially if the supervisor later punishes the subordinate ...

What does your organization do when a manager or supervisor recommends a subordinate should be fired? If you simply approve the recommendation without seeking more information, you may be asking for a lawsuit. Here’s why: If the manager’s reasons are illegal—maybe an attempt to punish an employee for asking for or taking FMLA leave—then courts will conclude that your organization shared the manager’s motives ...

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was created to protect employee benefits plans. It preempts state regulation of covered plans. But many states, including Ohio, have specific laws that cover other aspects of the employment relationship. Those laws still apply in many cases, even if an employer mistakenly states ERISA covers a particular benefit ...

Believe it or not, federal courts don’t want to micromanage every aspect of your HR function. When faced with serious claims such as discrimination, courts ask employees to prove they suffered an “adverse employment action”—major damage such as a demotion, a cut in pay or discharge. They don’t tend to sweat the small stuff, such as lousy performance appraisals ...

Ohio is an at-will employment state, meaning that employees can be fired (and quit) for any reason or no reason as long as the employer doesn’t violate a specific anti-discrimination or other law. But employers and employees can change their relationships to a contractual one by agreement. If they do, then it becomes much harder to fire that employee without a rock-solid reason ...

Employees are entitled to reasonable accommodation of their “sincerely held” religious beliefs. Employers face an uphill battle if they want to deny such requests because they doubt the sincerity of their employees’ beliefs. That’s because there’s very little employers can do to get such cases tossed out before they go to trial. End result? Lots of lost time—and lots of attorneys’ fees ...

Ohio has long recognized a common-law claim against wrongful discharge that violates public policy. For example, firing employees for filing a workers’ compensation claim would violate public policy. The same holds true for some claims that arguably would be covered by specific state and federal laws, such as the ADA and Ohio’s disability-discrimination law ...

Everybody knows the workplace is supposed to be free of all forms of harassment. Everybody also realizes that’s the platonic ideal. The good news is that, with vigilance, you’ll protect your organization from sexual-harassment lawsuits because any harassment that surfaces won’t be pervasive and severe ...

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